This Mighty Scourge: Perspectives on the Civil WarThe author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning Battle Cry of Freedom and the New York Times bestsellers Crossroads of Freedom and Tried by War, among many other award-winning books, James M. McPherson is America's preeminent Civil War historian. In this collection of provocative and illuminating essays, McPherson offers fresh insight into many of the enduring questions about one of the defining moments in our nation's history. McPherson sheds light on topics large and small, from the average soldier's avid love of newspapers to the postwar creation of the mystique of a Lost Cause in the South. Readers will find insightful pieces on such intriguing figures as Harriet Tubman, John Brown, Jesse James, and William Tecumseh Sherman, and on such vital issues as Confederate military strategy, the failure of peace negotiations to end the war, and the realities and myths of the Confederacy. This Mighty Scourge includes several never-before-published essays--pieces on General Robert E. Lee's goals in the Gettysburg campaign, on Lincoln and Grant in the Vicksburg campaign, and on Lincoln as Commander-in-Chief. All of the essays have been updated and revised to give the volume greater thematic coherence and continuity, so that it can be read in sequence as an interpretive history of the war and its meaning for America and the world. Combining the finest scholarship with luminous prose, and packed with new information and fresh ideas, this book brings together the most recent thinking by the nation's leading authority on the Civil War. |
From inside the book
Results 1-5 of 94
Page 3
... Confederate States of America, Alexander H. Stephens, said in a speech at Savannah on March 21, 1861, that slavery was “the immediate cause of the late rupture and the present revolution” of Southern independence? The old confederation ...
... Confederate States of America, Alexander H. Stephens, said in a speech at Savannah on March 21, 1861, that slavery was “the immediate cause of the late rupture and the present revolution” of Southern independence? The old confederation ...
Page 4
... Confederacy, slavery was gone with the wind—a dead and discredited institution. To concede that the Confederacy had ... Confederate Veterans, “and the cause of secession could have been any number of things. This overemphasis on the ...
... Confederacy, slavery was gone with the wind—a dead and discredited institution. To concede that the Confederacy had ... Confederate Veterans, “and the cause of secession could have been any number of things. This overemphasis on the ...
Page 5
... Confederate apologia voiced by Jefferson Davis and the new Progressive synthesis created by Charles Beard. The Confederacy fought not only for the constitutional principle of state's rights and self-government but also for the ...
... Confederate apologia voiced by Jefferson Davis and the new Progressive synthesis created by Charles Beard. The Confederacy fought not only for the constitutional principle of state's rights and self-government but also for the ...
Page 11
... Confederacy, members of a South Carolina family that contributed four brothers to the Confederate army reacted to the news of Lincoln's election with a determination that “now a stand must be made for African slavery or it is forever ...
... Confederacy, members of a South Carolina family that contributed four brothers to the Confederate army reacted to the news of Lincoln's election with a determination that “now a stand must be made for African slavery or it is forever ...
Page 12
... Confederacy. His much-loved grandmother was a member of the United Daughters of the Confederacy. In his dormitory room at a prep school in Virginia he proudly hung a Confederate flag. And he knew “that the South had seceded for one ...
... Confederacy. His much-loved grandmother was a member of the United Daughters of the Confederacy. In his dormitory room at a prep school in Virginia he proudly hung a Confederate flag. And he knew “that the South had seceded for one ...
Contents
THE LOST CAUSE REVISITED | 41 |
ARCHITECTS OF VICTORY | 107 |
HOME FRONT AND BATTLE FRONT | 143 |
LINCOLN | 185 |
Notes | 223 |
Index | 253 |
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Common terms and phrases
Abraham Lincoln Adams American American Civil War Ann Rutledge Antietam antislavery Army of Northern attack Basler battle biography campaign capture Charles Charles Francis Adams Civil command Confeder Confederacy Confederate armies Confederate Veterans Congress Constitution Copperhead Davis’s declared defeat defensive Democrats Diary election emancipation Emancipation Proclamation enemy Federal Fehrenbacher fighting forces fought Gettysburg Grant Greeley Halleck Harriet Harriet Tubman Henry Herndon historians Ibid James Jefferson Davis Jesse John Brown July later Lee’s army letter Lowell March Maryland Massachusetts McClellan McClernand military Mississippi Missouri negotiations newspapers North Northern Virginia officers Papers peace political Potomac president Proclamation quoted raid rebels regiment Republican Richmond River secession Seven Days battles Seward Sherman slavery slaves South Carolina Southern strategy Tennessee territory theater tion troops Tubman Union armies Union soldiers United Vicksburg victory vols Washington William Wilson words wrote Yankee York York Tribune